Schools struggle to close yawning gap in budget

By Debbie LaPlaca CORRESPONDENT

Friday

Mar 30, 2012 at 12:07 AM

After a public hearing Wednesday night, the Dudley-Charlton Regional School Committee reduced the budget for staff by $138,000, bringing total cuts since February to $3.3 million. A $1 million deficit remains.

The $45.9 million budget, for the fiscal year that begins July 1, is $1.3 million or 3 percent higher than for this school year.

During the public hearing, parents voiced concerns about increased class sizes, reductions to technology and the lingering impact today’s cuts will have on the quality of education in the years ahead.

Recent cuts eliminated 20 positions, placed capital improvements of $583,000 on hold, and cut $200,000 from technology and $312,000 from supplies and textbooks.

On the revenue side, the district will increase its reliance on reserves and revolving accounts, while raising student fees for lunch, high school athletics and preschool tuition.

Superintendent of Schools Sean M. Gilrein attributed the current $1 million budget gap to increases in contractual obligations, special education costs and operating expenses.

“The difficult reality we face is that we cannot close the gap created by cost increases and lost funding without significant reductions in personnel that will most certainly translate in higher class sizes and reduced services for our students and the towns,” Mr. Gilrein said.

After that comment, the committee eliminated five additional positions, bringing the total reduction to 25.

The positions cut were a preschool aide at Mason Road School and a job coach, physical education teacher, science teacher and an instructional aide at Shepherd Hill Regional High School.

Finance Director William J. Trifone said.another 20 positions would have to be eliminated to achieve the $1 million budget reduction needed to keep town assessments at the current levels.

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